diff --git a/docs/asset-engine/services.yaml b/docs/asset-engine/services.yaml
index ff4d484..7bbd17d 100644
--- a/docs/asset-engine/services.yaml
+++ b/docs/asset-engine/services.yaml
@@ -28,6 +28,10 @@ services:
     category: tts
     version: 2
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: kokoro
+      vram_gb: 2
+      gpu_device_id: null
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8193/v1/audio/speech
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -201,6 +205,10 @@ services:
     version: 1
     status: down
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: chatterbox
+      vram_gb: 4
+      gpu_device_id: 0
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8196/v1/audio/speech
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -261,6 +269,10 @@ services:
     version: 1
     status: down
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: index-tts
+      vram_gb: 6
+      gpu_device_id: null
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8192/v1/audio/speech
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -337,6 +349,10 @@ services:
     version: 1
     status: down
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: qwen3-tts
+      vram_gb: 16
+      gpu_device_id: null
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8191/v1/audio/speech
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -394,6 +410,10 @@ services:
     version: 1
     status: down
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: cosyvoice
+      vram_gb: 4
+      gpu_device_id: null
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8190/v1/audio/speech
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -454,6 +474,10 @@ services:
     category: tts
     version: 1
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: fish-s2
+      vram_gb: 4
+      gpu_device_id: 1
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8195/v1/tts
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -503,6 +527,10 @@ services:
     version: 1
     status: down
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: kyutai-tts
+      vram_gb: 6
+      gpu_device_id: 0
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8198/v1/audio/speech
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -552,6 +580,10 @@ services:
     category: tts
     version: 2
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: vibevoice
+      vram_gb: 20
+      gpu_device_id: 1
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8194/v1/audio/speech
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -636,6 +668,10 @@ services:
     version: 1
     status: down
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: voxtral
+      vram_gb: 12
+      gpu_device_id: 1
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8197/v1/audio/speech
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -689,6 +725,10 @@ services:
     category: asr
     version: 1
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: parakeet
+      vram_gb: 2
+      gpu_device_id: null
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8765/transcribe
     method: POST
     content_type: multipart/form-data
@@ -724,6 +764,10 @@ services:
     category: sfx
     version: 1
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: stable-audio-open
+      vram_gb: 6
+      gpu_device_id: 1
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8211/v1/audio/sfx
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
@@ -787,6 +831,10 @@ services:
     category: music
     version: 5
     host: irv-ml1
+    lifecycle:
+      stack: ace-step
+      vram_gb: 16
+      gpu_device_id: 1
     endpoint: http://10.100.79.3:8210/generate
     method: POST
     content_type: application/json
diff --git a/playbooks/deploy-asset-engine.yaml b/playbooks/deploy-asset-engine.yaml
index cc76a4e..3e25c9c 100644
--- a/playbooks/deploy-asset-engine.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/deploy-asset-engine.yaml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ vars:
   compose_dir: /opt/docker/compose/asset-engine
   db_dir: /opt/docker/conf/asset-engine/db
   outputs_dir: /opt/docker/conf/asset-engine/outputs
+  ssh_dir: /opt/docker/conf/asset-engine/ssh
   host_port: "8200"
 
 steps:
@@ -90,6 +91,11 @@ steps:
     shell: mkdir -p {{ outputs_dir }}
     creates: "{{ outputs_dir }}"
 
+  - name: Ensure SSH key dir exists (parent only — keys themselves are seeded
+          out-of-band on the host so the private key never crosses the network)
+    shell: mkdir -p {{ ssh_dir }} && chmod 700 {{ ssh_dir }}
+    creates: "{{ ssh_dir }}"
+
   # ── deploy compose files ────────────────────────────────────────────
   - name: Upload compose.yaml
     upload:
diff --git a/servers/irv-ml1/README.md b/servers/irv-ml1/README.md
index 0089384..60846b3 100644
--- a/servers/irv-ml1/README.md
+++ b/servers/irv-ml1/README.md
@@ -65,12 +65,29 @@ Docker 29.4.1 with `nvidia` and `runc` runtimes. `lkraven` is in the
 `docker` group. `traefik-net` external network exists for stacks that
 need it.
 
-| Stack | Port | Role |
-|-------|------|------|
-| dockge | 5001 | Per-host Compose UI |
-| beszel-agent-irv | 45876 | Metrics agent → Beszel hub on ana-docker (token mode through WG) |
-| dozzle-agent-irv | 7007 | Log agent → Dozzle hub on ana-docker |
-| comfyui | 8188 | ComfyUI (node-based SD/Flux) — runs independently of `/opt/ComfyUI` native install |
+| Stack | Port | GPU | Role |
+|-------|------|-----|------|
+| dockge | 5001 | — | Per-host Compose UI |
+| beszel-agent-irv | 45876 | — | Metrics agent → Beszel hub on ana-docker (token mode through WG) |
+| dozzle-agent-irv | 7007 | — | Log agent → Dozzle hub on ana-docker |
+| comfyui | 8188 | all | ComfyUI (node-based SD/Flux) — runs independently of `/opt/ComfyUI` native install |
+| kokoro | 8193 | all | Kokoro 82M TTS — lowest-latency English TTS, OpenAI-compatible /v1/audio/speech |
+| chatterbox | 8196 | 0 (3090) | Chatterbox voice-cloning TTS |
+| index-tts | 8192 | all | IndexTTS multilingual TTS |
+| qwen3-tts | 8191 | all | Qwen3-TTS — 7B multilingual TTS |
+| cosyvoice | 8190 | all | CosyVoice multilingual TTS |
+| fish-s2 | 8195 | 1 (A6000) | Fish-Speech S2 TTS |
+| kyutai-tts | 8198 | 0 (3090) | Kyutai TTS |
+| vibevoice | 8194 | 1 (A6000) | Microsoft VibeVoice TTS |
+| voxtral | 8197 | 1 (A6000) | Mistral Voxtral ASR |
+| parakeet | 8765 | all | NVIDIA Parakeet ASR (transcription) |
+| stable-audio-open | 8211 | 1 (A6000) | Stable Audio Open 1.0 — diffusion SFX/ambience generator |
+| ace-step | 8210 | 1 (A6000) | ACE-Step 1.5 — Apache-2.0 hybrid diffusion+LLM music generation |
+
+GPU pinning comes from the compose `NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES` default;
+`all` means the model picks at runtime (typically GPU 0). The
+asset-engine orchestrator (`docs/asset-engine/services.yaml` → per-service
+`lifecycle:` block) gates start operations on per-device VRAM headroom.
 
 Exposed Docker socket on `*:2375` (for the homepage integration hub on
 esh-docker-vm, which auto-discovers containers on this host).
diff --git a/stacks/asset-engine/.env.example b/stacks/asset-engine/.env.example
index 1ce05c7..970e920 100644
--- a/stacks/asset-engine/.env.example
+++ b/stacks/asset-engine/.env.example
@@ -22,6 +22,13 @@ ASSET_ENGINE_BIND=0.0.0.0
 ASSET_ENGINE_DB_DIR=/opt/docker/conf/asset-engine/db
 ASSET_ENGINE_OUTPUTS_DIR=/opt/docker/conf/asset-engine/outputs
 
+# SSH key dir for orchestrating irv-ml1 services (bring up / down via SSH +
+# docker compose). Holds id_ed25519 (mode 600) + known_hosts (mode 644)
+# pre-populated with irv-ml1's pinned ed25519 fingerprint. Generated on the
+# host directly so the private key never crosses the network. Bind-mounted
+# read-only into the container at /app/runtime/ssh.
+ASSET_ENGINE_SSH_DIR=/opt/docker/conf/asset-engine/ssh
+
 # Inference target. Default is irv-ml1 over WG. Override if the fleet's
 # inference host moves.
 INFERENCE_HOST=10.100.79.3
diff --git a/stacks/asset-engine/compose.yaml b/stacks/asset-engine/compose.yaml
index a12979f..d1dd9ed 100644
--- a/stacks/asset-engine/compose.yaml
+++ b/stacks/asset-engine/compose.yaml
@@ -15,8 +15,9 @@
 #
 # Internal tooling — accessed directly on host:port over the LAN, does
 # NOT traverse Traefik. State persists under /opt/docker/conf/asset-engine/
-# {db,outputs} on the host — separate bind-mounts so outputs/ can move
-# to a bigger volume later without touching DB state.
+# {db,outputs,ssh} on the host — db/outputs are separate bind-mounts so
+# outputs/ can move to a bigger volume later without touching DB state;
+# ssh/ holds the dedicated keypair used to orchestrate irv-ml1 services.
 #
 # All tunables live in .env — edit that, not this file.
 
@@ -36,9 +37,15 @@ services:
       - OIDC_ISSUER=${OIDC_ISSUER:-}
       - OIDC_CLIENT_ID=${OIDC_CLIENT_ID:-}
       - OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=${OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET:-}
+      # Orchestration SSH paths inside the container.
+      - SSH_KEY_PATH=/app/runtime/ssh/id_ed25519
+      - SSH_KNOWN_HOSTS=/app/runtime/ssh/known_hosts
     volumes:
       - ${ASSET_ENGINE_DB_DIR}:/app/runtime/db
       - ${ASSET_ENGINE_OUTPUTS_DIR}:/app/runtime/outputs
+      # Dedicated SSH key for orchestrating irv-ml1 services (up/down).
+      # Read-only; key is generated on the host, never crosses the network.
+      - ${ASSET_ENGINE_SSH_DIR}:/app/runtime/ssh:ro
     healthcheck:
       test: ["CMD-SHELL", "python -c 'import urllib.request,sys; r=urllib.request.urlopen(\"http://127.0.0.1:8000/health\",timeout=3); sys.exit(0 if r.status==200 else 1)' || exit 1"]
       interval: 30s